Big Content: ludicrous to expect DRMed music to work forever
When Wal-Mart announced in 2008 that it was pulling down the DRM servers behind its (nearly unused) online music store, the Internet suffered a collective aneurysm of outrage, eventually forcing the retail giant to run the servers for another year.
Context & Ripple Effects
The DRM retreat in music retail has been running for two years: Wal-Mart dropped DRM from new downloads in August 2007 (the world's largest music retailer ditching DRM), Warner Music followed that December, and Microsoft shut off MSN Music's authorization servers in April 2008 (pulling the plug on MSN Music DRM) with only burn-to-CD as a lifeline for stranded buyers. The pattern was set when Wal-Mart announced in September 2008 it would shut down the DRM servers behind its largely unused online music store.
The twist reported here is that consumer backlash forced Wal-Mart to keep those servers alive an extra year — and Ars Technica argues Big Content should stop pretending DRMed files can be guaranteed to work indefinitely once the issuing company loses interest.
First-order effects
- Customers who bought DRMed tracks from Wal-Mart get a one-year reprieve on authorization before their purchases risk becoming unplayable, and the episode hands every remaining DRM operator (Microsoft included) a live demonstration of what a shutdown announcement costs in goodwill.
Second-order effects
- Retailers and labels selling DRM-free files gain a marketing weapon — 'your music keeps working' — while any store still licensing third-party DRM faces pressure to fund server maintenance indefinitely or offer migration paths like unrestricted copies.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, paid downloads drift toward either DRM-free delivery or forensic watermarking (the alternative Wired flagged rising from DRM's ashes), and 'buying' digital media is redefined as a license contingent on the seller's continued existence rather than durable ownership.
The trend: Music retail is exiting DRM not because copy protection improved but because server-dependent locks proved commercially unsustainable, pushing the industry toward DRM-free files and watermark-based tracking.